by Eric Vall
I hopped into the truck with Tara and Kimmy, but before I started it up, I downed an entire water bottle in one go.
“Geez,” Kimmy chuckled.
“Yous a thirsty bitch,” Tara laughed and winked at me.
“Am I supposed to know what that means?” I asked with an amused look.
“I don’t think you want to know,” Kimmy told me as she snickered behind her hand.
“Something dirty,” I said with an eye roll. “I could’ve guessed that already.”
“You know me so well,” the platinum blonde said with a grin.
“Pretty much eighty percent of what comes out of your mouth is dirty,” I chuckled. “You’re pretty predictable.”
“Predictable, but hilarious,” Tara said, and she stuck her tongue out at me.
“If you say so,” I teased.
“Kimmy thinks so, too!” Tara exclaimed, and she turned to the beautiful dark skinned woman. “Don’t you, Kimmy?”
“You’re pretty funny,” Kimmy answered with a shrug.
“Get out,” Tara said with a serious face, and she pointed to the passenger door behind Kimmy.
“Whoa,” the curly haired woman chuckled and held her hands up. “I meant to say that you’re hilarious.”
“Damn right,” Tara said with a mischievous smile.
I rolled my eyes at the two of them, then I started the truck and headed down the driveway.
I could clearly see the black smoke behind us as we drove, and my gut told me that we’d have to deal with this beast before the end of the day.
On the way back home, my stomach began to growl, and I realized then that we hadn’t eaten breakfast before we left. I’d told Betty that we’d eat when we got back, but I hadn’t thought about how long of a process watering the crops would be with just the six of us.
As we pulled up the driveway and got close to campus, I could smell some sort of cooked meat and my mouth began to water. I quickly parked the truck and hopped out, ready to find the source of that delicious smell.
Betty was still up on the roof, but I didn’t see baby Anthony with her.
“Hey,” Rolly greeted us.
“Hey, old-timer,” I said with a small smile, then I pointed up to Betty. “Where’s Anthony?”
“He’s inside with Marla,” he informed me. “Marla thought it best to keep all the kids inside since it’s so smokey.”
“That makes sense,” Tara said with a nod.
“Yeah,” I agreed, and I looked around and spotted the table of food.
“Jenny made breakfast,” Rolly said. “Eat up, there’s a few other things we’re working on still.”
“Sounds good,” I agreed.
The girls and I dished up our plates, and I ate quickly as I looked around to see what the civilians were doing.
Rolly had some of the men in the woods cutting down any low hanging branches past the point where we had cut down the trees. Some others raked up debris from the ground to make sure that there was nothing for the fire to grab onto if it came this way.
The military trucks that were loaded with supplies were all lined up and ready to go at a moment’s notice, and I noticed that some of the fuel had been loaded onto them as well.
The biscuits and gravy that Jenny had made were delicious, but I couldn’t focus much on the food aside from it filling my belly. Once I had finished eating, I grabbed a pair of lawn clippers and headed out to help the men with the trimming of the trees.
The campus was surrounded by pine trees, so there were plenty of small, low hanging branches that a fire could easily grab onto. We made sure to go out at least a hundred feet from campus and cut down any branches we saw. Those with rakes came after us to clean up the mess, but it was a long, arduous process and it took up most of the afternoon.
It felt like even longer since I couldn’t completely focus on the task at hand. I knew the fire would arrive any minute now, and I was just waiting for whoever was on guard duty at the moment to holler out the evacuation signal.
Once the branches were cleared and the later afternoon had set in, I grabbed a bottle of water and went to find Rolly.
“Hey, old-timer,” I said as I walked over to where he sat next to Tara by the fire pit. “Thanks for putting all of this together today.”
“Eh, it was nothing,” Rolly said with a wave of his hand. “I think we’re about as protected as we can be, though.”
“That’s what I was afraid of,” I sighed. “Now all we can do is wait for the fire to hit.”
“My hands don’t like to be idle,” the old man said. “But I think you’re right.”
I didn’t like the idea of not doing anything, either, but we’d made sure to prepare as best as we could, and there was nothing more to do. The fire lines were made on the farm, and we’d done the best we could with the campus.
It was difficult to prepare in a situation like this. You basically had two options. Stay and try to fight the natural disaster, or evacuate.
I didn’t want to evacuate unless we had to, especially since we needed the crops on the farm to get through winter. That meant that all we could do was prepare for the worst, and that’s what we’d done. I just had to hope that it would be enough. Natural disasters weren’t known for their forgiving nature.
“Is Betty still on the roof?” I asked.
“She switched with Dan a while ago,” Rolly informed me.
“Okay.” I nodded. As long as someone was on the roof at all times, it didn’t matter to me who it was.
“I think she was getting some things ready to start dinner,” the old man said.
“Dinner sounds great,” I replied with a smile.
It was a strange feeling to know that we were just waiting for danger to hit us. It was a feeling that I knew all too well from my time in the service, but it was still strange nonetheless. It wasn’t exactly something that you just got used to. There was always a level of anxiety and adrenaline that accompanied it and there wasn’t much you could do to stop those feelings.
I looked around and found Betty and the girls walking from the gym to the fire pit. Betty had some pouches and cans in her arms, and Tara had a large pot. Once they got to the fire, Bailey got it started for them, and they all took their seats as they chatted.
Instead of joining them right away, I headed inside the dorm building and up to the bathroom by the girls’ and mine’s rooms.
I splashed my face with some cold water, then took my tank top off, soaked it in cool water as well, and wrung it out. The water that came from it was slightly off color from my sweat throughout the day, but when I put the shirt back on I immediately felt my body temperature decrease.
I took a minute to look in the mirror and stare at my reflection before I headed back downstairs. There were bags under my eyes from lack of sleep, and my beard had obviously not been maintained in quite a while.
“Hey,” Anna called out when I came out of the building. “Come join us.”
I smiled and walked over to the group. Whatever they were cooking smelled good already, and I felt my stomach rumble in response.
Kimmy had baby Anthony on her lap, and she bounced him up and down as he giggled and smiled.
The kids had been cooped up inside all day because Marla thought that was best for them, but since dinner was cooking they’d been granted permission to come outside. Marla’s boys played with Henry’s grandkids and some of the other children from the women’s compound. They ran around the courtyard, and Winchester tagged along, of course.
Seeing everyone act so normal, albeit exhausted, only served to remind me of what it is that we worked so hard to protect. We’d created a community here. A family. And that wasn’t something I’d give up so easily. None of us would.
“Hey, Kimmy,” Bailey said.
“Yeah?” the dark skinned woman asked.
“Do you have Tara’s phone on you?” the blonde inquired.
“Uh, yeah,” Kimmy said, and she pulled the phone out of he
r pocket.
“Here,” Bailey said, and she took the phone and backed up to take a picture of the mother and child.
“Thanks,” Kimmy said with a smile.
“Say cheese!” Bailey exclaimed and baby Anthony let out a little squeal of joy.
“Cheese!” Kimmy laughed.
“Awesome,” Bailey said. “Now everybody scoot in a bit.”
We all squished up next to Kimmy and baby Anthony, and Bailey was about to take the picture, but Tara interrupted.
“Bailey,” the platinum blonde said. “Set a timer and get in here!”
“Oh, right,” Bailey said. “I almost forgot that I could do that.”
The blonde pushed a few buttons and propped up the phone on a table, and then she came and crouched down by the rest of us. The phone beeped slowly, then with increasing speed until a loud shutter sound signaled that the photo had been taken.
“Let me see!” Tara exclaimed, and she ran toward the phone.
I was surprised that none of the girls had thought to use their phones as cameras before now. The pictures would make a nice keepsake, and I made a mental note to look for my phone later. I might like to take some pictures of my own.
“Kimmy,” I said as everyone looked over the photo.
“Yes?” the dark skinned beauty asked.
“Do you think you can show me how to do that broadcast here soon?” I inquired.
“Of course,” she said with a quick nod. “We can do it right now if you want to.”
“Okay,” I agreed.
I stood up and waited for Kimmy, but all the other girls stood up, too. Tara put the phone away and it was clear that they had gone back into serious mode.
“You coming?” I asked with a chuckle.
“Do you think we’d miss this?” Anna asked with a raised eyebrow.
“I suppose not,” I said.
Kimmy left baby Anthony with Betty, and we all headed into the dorm building. The supply closet where the CB radio was at quickly became cramped as everyone tried to squeeze in, but I didn’t mind. I knew they all wanted to be part of the broadcast, and we were a team, so there was no reason they shouldn’t be.
“So how does this work?” I asked as Kimmy turned on some of the equipment she’d picked up at the broadcast station.
“Do you really want me to answer that?” she teased.
“I suppose not,” I laughed. “But what do I need to do?”
“Hang on,” she said, and she waited until some little lights came on on one of her machines, then she turned to me. “It’s all hooked up so you can use the mic. Just say what you want the broadcast to be and when you’re done hold up a finger so I know.”
“That sounds simple enough,” I agreed.
“Are you ready?” Kimmy asked with a hesitant but serious look on her face.
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” I told her.
“Okay,” she said, and she flipped a button then gestured to the mic.
“Hello,” I said as I put the mic up to my mouth and pushed the button. “We are a group of survivors and we would like to alert anyone in the area to a large fire that is headed south. If you are a friendly, reply on channel 19 for more information.”
I held up my finger just as Kimmy told me to do, and the dark skinned woman flipped the same button she had when I started.
“Did it work?” I asked.
“There’s one way to find out,” she said.
Kimmy messed with some toggles and buttons on her machines, then a crackling came through one of the speakers and a second later I heard my own voice. The recording was clear as day, and once it ended it started right back up again.
“Wow,” I said, and I smiled at the beautiful woman in front of me. “I’m impressed.”
“I do my best,” Kimmy said with a shrug and a grin.
Channel 19 was the channel that we used to communicate with the fort. Now that we’d broadcasted that, we would have to be particularly careful, but I told myself that it was worth it. I felt good about getting the message out. At that moment I couldn’t focus on whether or not the people on the other end were assholes, right then they just had to be humans. And we all owed a semblance of respect to our fellow human beings. If they didn’t know about the fire before, then I’d done my best to warn them, and that was all I could do at the moment.
“How will we know if they respond?” Bailey asked.
“We’ll try to keep someone in here most of the time,” I said.
“Renee is on that channel too,” Paige pointed out. “She could answer as well.”
“That’s true,” I agreed.
Just then a loud ruckus made us all give pause, and a second later Rolly came to the doorway. He was breathless, and he looked around until his eyes landed on me.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, and I instinctively hopped to my feet.
“It’s Dan,” Rolly panted. “He called down from the roof. Said he could see something.”
Chapter 13
“Shit,” I breathed and I pushed past everyone and ran up the stairs.
I could hear the others behind me, but I focused solely on getting to the roof as quickly as possible.
I burst through the door and saw Dan standing on the north side of the roof of the building.
“It’s right there,” the young man said with a point.
I could clearly see the black smoke that rose up into the sky, but as I stepped toward him, an orange glow became visible as well. It was only a few miles from us at most, which meant it was incredibly close to the farm. I glanced over to the flag to see that it was moving slightly with a northern breeze, then I sucked in a quick breath as I stared out at the horizon.
Shit was about to hit the fan.
The evening had grown dim, and sunset would arrive soon, but there in the twilight the flames were increasingly visible. It looked like they had just climbed over a hill, and we all stood and watched the fire eat the forest that surrounded us.
“Should we evacuate?” Paige asked.
“Not yet,” I said with a shake of my head.
“It’s so close to the farm,” Dan whispered.
“It’ll be okay,” I told the young man as I put my hand on his shoulder.
“What do we do?” Anna asked, but I said nothing, just shook my head.
We’d done all that we could do at that point. The farm and campus were as protected as they could be, I just hoped that it would be enough.
Everyone grew quiet, and I forgot all of the other concerns I’d had up until that moment. Right then all I could focus on was the fire in front of me.
The broadcast didn’t matter, the rumbling of my stomach was secondary, and I couldn’t even form a complete thought. All I could do was stare out at the horizon.
Before I knew it, the day had grown dark, and a crowd of people had gathered on the roof. We all watched quietly as the orange demon made its way across the land.
It looked like it was headed east, but it still creeped slowly south as well. I hoped that it would get pushed east by the wind and miss the farm totally, but something told me that just wasn’t in the cards.
I realized at some point that we must have been watching it for a couple of hours already, but I didn’t care. My adrenaline was up and my heart raced as the flames licked lower and lower south.
The small outline of our farm in the distance was all I could focus on, and I watched as the orange glow approached it.
Betty gasped next to me, and I stared intently at the flames as they got right up to the edge of the farm.
It would be dawn soon, but as I watched the fire I realized that our fire lines were holding.
“It looks like they worked,” Paige whispered next to me.
I needed a better view, so I quickly ran down to my room and grabbed a pair of binoculars from my pack, then I ran back upstairs.
I used the binoculars to scan the farm, and my breath caught when I saw that near the back of the field some flames appear
ed to move closer than those around it.
It was clear then that the fire had hopped the line right there.
“It’s over,” I breathed, and I took off down the stairs. “Fuck.”
“What?” Anna called behind me. “What do you mean it’s over?”
“The fire hopped the line,” I said as I rushed down the stairs with all the girls after me. “Near the back of the field, it hopped the line.”
“Shit,” Paige said. “What do we do?”
“Stay here,” I told them as I reached the front door and busted it open.
“No fucking way,” Tara said.
I paused for a second and took a deep breath, but I didn’t have time to argue with them. I needed to get to the farm right away. If I didn’t, then the fire was going to take out all our crops.
“Fine,” I said as I turned toward one of the jeeps. “Get in. Hurry!”
The girls all piled into the jeep, and I fired it up and then peeled off down the driveway.
The first light of day had barely broken the horizon, but it was smokey as hell out, so everything appeared to be cast in a strange gray shadow.
“What’s the plan?” Anna asked as I made a sharp turn onto the main road.
None of the girls were buckled, and Anna held onto the dash to brace herself as I moved us down the highway at breakneck speeds.
“I need to get on the tractor,” I said quickly. “If I can put another line up, then we might be able to keep it at bay.”
“What should we do?” Paige asked.
“Grab some shovels,” I instructed. “Go around the perimeter, and anywhere you see even the smallest ember on our side you put it out, cover it with dirt, anything you can do to smother it.”
“Got it,” Anna agreed.
“And if anything starts to go bad you get into the jeep and go,” I commanded.
“We’re not leaving you behind,” Bailey protested.
“Don’t worry about me,” I said sternly. “If I give you the signal, or too many flames jump the barrier, then you get into the jeep and go.”
The girls said nothing, so I slammed on the accelerator as we turned up Betty’s driveway.
It didn’t take long for us to get to the farmhouse, but it was so smoky that it was hard to see anything, so I pulled up my shirt to cover my face as I threw open the door.
